My brother dug through some old comics and came across several issues of the old Animal Man series. For those unfamiliar, I’ll use a passage from some guy’s review of an Animal Man TPB:
Buddy Baker is a man who can absorb powers from nearby animals temporarily – for example, in rescuing a cat from a tree at the start of the first chapter, he falls off a branch, absorbs the cat’s agility, and twists like a feline to land on his feet. Living with his wife (Ellen) and kids (Cliff and Maxine), Buddy feels that something is missing from his life – he needs to become…Animal Man once again.
Sounds like intriguing stuff, right? Well, back to my story, my brother pulls out a bunch of Animal Man issues (#51-56 I believe) that collectively form a story-arc called Flesh and Blood. Without spoiling much, the story depicts Buddy Baker/Animal Man attempting to come back to life after basically being run over by a truck.
At first, I thought the death itself was okay, but looking back on it, it seems rather unremarkable. Perhaps that’s the intent of it all; that this superhero that isn’t widely known gets offed by being run over by roadkill. But while the death scene seems more like an afterthought, it’s the resurrection process that is the main focus of the latter chapters, as Buddy takes on the life essences of various animals from a bat to lice until eventually retaining human form. This is one of those few comic book stories that actually got me hooked until the end.
If you’re into this kind of stuff, fetch this set of Animal Man issues. I’m not sure if there’s a collected edition of this story, but there should be. It’s good stuff.
dtm666 